I started the day off as keynote speaker fora Junior Achievement special event sponsored by Wal-Mart. The event brought over 300 middle school students in from New England to discuss financial literacy. I tied in a theme of money being your best friend and being responsible. I showed a Scruples Big Time Saver animated cartoon we did years ago for Bank of America. The kids seemed excited. After the event I spoke to the Wal-Mart represenatives about the DR project and the work we are doing at Young! Studios. They told me to stay in contact and they were interested in our endeavors.

Tonight  at 7:00p.m. at YS we have our talent show and open mike. It will be a good fundraiser and an on-going way to showcase and recruit for the DR project.

The new website is up. We had trouble at first posting the blogs. But I think we worked out all the kinks. Yesterday we had a good sales mtg. the team seems entergetic and bringing revenue in…small but everything helps. I sit on a board at Capital Community College. I was able to talk about the DR project. Alot of people seem interested in participating.
Vanessa was able to get more invitations out to potential attendees for the AYS world premiere.

Mike Sanders came by the studios with WNBA Basketball star Ashley Battle who plays for the NY Liberty. She gave some advice on how to make it and gave special shout outs to the Diamond Ruff Project. We will use her interview on this weeks You Tube entry.
Kyle and I also started to put together a DR Making Of video for the AYS world Premiere. It will be fun. Hopefully we can shoot on Saturday.

Another good day. Denise set up a conference call with a PR firm in Fairfield County who is interested in helping us get the word out on the project. They have gotten clients on major network shows. They seem to have a real interest in our story. Kyle worked on getting the word out to our social networks about our special events. Geanetta wrote the letter to accompany the press release that will go out re: the AYS world premiere. This campaign should be launched by the end of the week. Vanessa worked mostly on getting more invitations out about the AYS video premiere. Myrton came in and showed us the latest animation he has for the AYS video. It looks good.

Today was a good day. We heard from the CPA firm who will be representing us on the DR Project. They are excited about the project and will begin the process of helping us develop investment packages for the movie.
The State of CT sent us our tax credit paperwork which will allow us to seek funding for our expenses toward the movie. This is a major break once we begin to leverage companies to buy our tax credits. This will help give us development money for the film. It’s still a long grueling process but it’s a start.

I went on a Poetry Cable TV show today. I was able to promote the DR project (TV Show, AYS music video/premiere, HGT), Y!S and HAFI.  It will air in November.

Kyle and I also shot the latest You Tube we focused on HGT and promoting the AYS event.

We went into the office for a few hrs. today trying to to tie some HAFI and YS work up. We sent out a batch of AYS invitations. Also Geannetta finshed up the AYS World Premiere press release. Kyle and I began putting together the You Tube enrty this week. We will focus on HGT event and winners and promote the AYS world premiere event.

During the day Vanessa and team got the invitations out for the AYS World premiere. Each week we will be sending out more invitations.  We are allowing 5 weeks to promote it correctly.

We had a good turnout for “Hartford’s Got Talent”(HGT) program. There were three winners all from Springfield, MA.  I think next Friday we will be close to capacity seating. The Gamer’s Club also had a good turnout. Kudos to Eric and Dwight for putting the Gamer’s Club together w/out any assistance. I think Friday nights can be very successful at Young! Studios and a great consistent fundraiser for the DR Project.

HGT can turn into a major recruitment program for the DR project if we plan it correctly. I’m excited about it.

In the office Kyle pushed the new DR “Hartford Got Talent” talent showcase through our social networks. Denise is busy trying to help us bring the project to the next level by bringing in marketing and sales peple.

I went to NYC . I’m trying to open as many new opportunities as possble. I met w/a fim distribution company. The have interest in distributing DR. The only catch is they only distribute finished feature films. It is a good contact to have.

Getting back into the swing of hthings after being gone for almost a week. Trying to play catch up with YS/HAFI/DR work. I’m slowly catching up.

I’m trying to continue to build a good solid DR team. Vanessa is putting together AYSWorld Premiere invitations to some of our strongest supporters. I believe this event will help turn the tide.